Macrophages are white blood cells formed by the differentiation of monocytes in tissue. Macrophages participate in innate immunity by phagocytosing pathogens or cellular debris, or help initiate adaptive immunity by stimulating other immune cells, such as lymphocytes, to fight against pathogens.
A majority of macrophages gather in the tissue or organs where pathogen invasion is likely to occur. Macrophages have different names based on their locations in the body. For example, macrophages located in the liver are called Kupffer cells; macrophages in the spleen are called sinusoidal lining cells; macrophages in the bone are called osteoclasts; and macrophages in the kidney are called mesangial cells.
Even though macrophages help the animal body fight pathogen infections, over-activation (or excessively high activity) of macrophages may cause the disorder of immune system in the body, resulting in various inflammatory diseases (such as arthritis, hepatitis, or splenitis) and even the generation of cancers (such as sarcomatous cancer, prostate cancer, glioblastoma cancer, melanoma cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, or ovarian cancer). For example, this over-activation of macrophages may result in macrophage activation syndrome (MAS).
Considering that the over-activation of macrophages may cause various diseases described above, a medicine or a method is needed for effectively inhibiting the activation of macrophages to cure the diseases derived from the over-activation of macrophages.
The present invention is a result of the study conducted for the above demand. The inventors of the present invention found that (−)-Epicatechin-3-O-β-D-allopyranoside can effectively inhibit the activation of macrophages, and thus, it can be used for curing the diseases related to the over-activation of macrophages.